Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Automated strike zone within five years.

Two reasons:
1. It already exists.
2. The Major Baseball League (MBL) will be shamed into it as MBL was with reviewing plays as viewers become increasingly appalled at seeing all the bad ball/strike calls, especially in big situations in big games.

We hear that the umpires are improving. How do we know? We track their results against the automated system. Say what? Yeah.

So, huh, why not just cut out the middle man, a.k.a., the plate umpire? There are also two camera replays that are deadly:
1. Side to determine whether a pitch is low.
2. Overhead above the plate, which is the most alarming of all the evidence because it's about as close to absolute as one could reasonably expect.

There are probably about 150 pitches called by the plate ump, way more than any other type of decision. The ones that are of concern are the close ones. Saying that the ump is correct 90% of the time includes the easy ones. How are the umps doing on the close ones? That's the crucial question.

There are no physical limits to the strike zone. It is an imaginary three dimensional area hovering above ground. To make it even more elusive, it's size varies with each batter.

The pitcher imagines its location, then throws and hopes to place the ball within it. The batter imagines where it might be and swings through that area. Finally, the plate umpire imagines whether a baseball traveling over ninety miles per hour and moving erratically has passed through any part of it or possibly grazed the edge of it.